1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a radiation image pickup apparatus detecting radiation rays, a radiation image pickup system, and a method for manufacturing a radiation image pickup apparatus, and more particularly relates to a radiation image pickup apparatus used for a medical image diagnosis apparatus, a nondestructive inspection apparatus, an analysis apparatus, and the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
A commercially available single crystal semiconductor wafer is generally smaller in size than a glass substrate. Hence, in order to form a large-area detector using a single crystal semiconductor wafer, a single crystal semiconductor wafer in which detection elements are formed is divided to form a plurality of image pickup element chips, and an appropriate number of the image pickup element chips are arranged to form a detector having a desired area. Typically, the image pickup element chips are permanently fixed to a based board to form the detector. One example of this technique is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,800,857 (also published as U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2002/0038851), which is assigned to Canon Kabushiki Kaisha the assignee of the present application. U.S. Pat. No. 6,800,857 discloses that in order to reduce cost, before image pickup element chips are adhered to the base board which functions as a part of an apparatus, the image pickup element chips are inspected, and an image pickup element chip which is detected as a defective element, if any, is exchanged. In addition, it has also been disclosed that after the inspection and the exchange are performed, the image pickup element chips are fixed to the base board by adhesion.
However, with the technique disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,800,857, after a plurality of image pickup element chips is adhered to the base board, it is difficult to exchange one or more defective image pickup element chips which are discovered by inspection or testing. For example, when a defective image pickup element chip is peeled off, an image pickup element chip having no defect may be fractured by an external stress applied thereto in some cases. In addition, even if an image pickup element chip were to be replaced after assembly, properties of an image pickup element chip having no defect may be degraded in some cases by a solvent used for dissolving an adhesive.